1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information management method for managing information about production or manufacture of photo film cartridges, each of which contains a roll of photo filmstrip in a light-tight cartridge shell. More particularly, the present invention relates to a production information management method, by which the operation of production facilities for the photo film cartridges is efficiently controlled, and various kinds data obtained from these facilities are efficiently utilized for manufacturing the photo film cartridges.
2. Background Arts
Photo film cartridge containing a roll of photo filmstrip in a light-tight cartridge shell are widely used for photography. The photo film cartridges can be sorted into various types according to the film speed, the number of available exposures, whether it is a color film or a black-and-white film, etc., so that photographers may chose appropriate types in accordance with their needs or intentions. To show the type of each photo film cartridge, information or indicia is printed on the cartridge shell and on the packaging casket, e.g. a cardboard box. The indicia on the casket and the cartridge shell must precisely indicate the type of photo filmstrip contained therein. Accordingly, it is necessary to supervise the production process of the photo film cartridges so as to prevent confusion between different type parts, that is, prevent combining a filmstrip with a different type cartridge shell or a different type casket.
For such production management, papers, e.g. slips, labels and books, have been popularly used. First when manufacturing the filmstrip, an emulsion, whose type is determined according to a production plan, is applied on one surface of a wide web of base film, to produce a master roll. Next the master roll is slit into continuous strips of a constant width. The continuous strips are each individually formed into a roll, and a label is attached to the roll, indicating the number of the emulsion used, the production date and time, the production lot number and other data about the rolled continuous strip. On the other hand, the cartridge shells and the caskets are produced with indicia indicating a film cartridge type determined according to the production plan. The productions are collected in containers according to the kind of parts, the production date, and the production lot number. A label indicating the production date and the production lot number is attached to each container in the same way as the productions.
Since the film cartridge type is assigned to the respective parts, i.e., the continuous strips, the cartridge shells and the caskets, in the respective production stages, it is possible to correlate the film cartridge type with the production lot numbers of the respective parts, for example, by use of a parts management table. Thereby, the production management department can designate the film cartridge type to produce by the production lot numbers of the respective parts. With reference to the production lot numbers on a production order slip issued by the production management department, the manufacture department can chose an appropriate kind of parts by identifying the production lot numbers indicated by the labels on the containers. The chosen parts are supplied to the respective production apparatuses on the manufacture lines.
In order to improve the efficiency of the paper-based production management, the way to utilize computers for the production management has been studied. Generally, production facilities for photo film cartridges consist of a plurality of manufacture lines. Therefore, disposing a line supervisory computer in each of the manufacture lines make it possible to check if the parts supplied to each line are proper or not. By entering data of the production lot numbers of the parts and production conditions into the line supervisory computers with reference to the production order slips issued from the production management department, it is possible to check the production lot number of the parts as being supplied to each production apparatus, or setup conditions of each production apparatus prior to actuation.
The production conditions include production conditions and inspection conditions. As examples of the production conditions, the length of individual filmstrips to be cut from the continuous strip, and side-printing format for printing an ID number and frame serial numbers on the sides of each individual filmstrip are designated according to the type and the number of available exposures of the photo film cartridges to produce. As the inspection conditions, there are threshold data for appearance tests and performance tests, timing data and sampling number data for sampling inspection, and so forth.
The setup data of the production conditions and the inspection conditions used for each kind of parts is entered in the books along with the production date data. Alternatively, hard copies of the setup data are printed out from a terminal computer, and are stored with the books. This allows to trace the records or history of any photo film cartridge after the shipment, such as the production conditions and the inspection conditions used for the photo film cartridge, if only the production lot number is determined. Therefore, storing the setup data in or with the books is very useful for the quality management or supervisory. After storing the setup data, the production apparatuses are actuated to manufacture and pack the photo film cartridges in accordance with production order table.
Recently, a new type photo film cartridge, called IX 240 type or Advanced Photo System type, was brought into market. The new type uses completely different cartridge shell and filmstrip from those of the conventional ISO 135 type. The new cartridge shell is constituted of a pair of plastic shell halves, a spool, a light shielding door and other plastic parts, and functions such that the leader of the filmstrip fully wound into the cartridge shell is advanced out of the cartridge shell responsive to unwinding rotation of the spool.
As described above, when manufacturing various types photo film cartridges, parts management is necessary to sort the parts and the packages of the photo film cartridges and chose correct parts and packages in accordance with the film cartridge type. Especially in the production facilities for IX 240 type photo film cartridge, which consists of a lot of parts and some of them vary depending upon the filmstrip format, the parts management can be complicated. According to the conventional paper-based production management method, management of an increasing number of papers themselves can be time- and labor-consuming: It is necessary to write setup data in the papers along with the other production information, or preserve hard copies of setup data in association with the papers containing other information. The operators can misread the information on the papers, especially when the film cartridge type to produce should be changed on a manufacture line.
Regarding the setup of the production conditions and the inspection conditions on the line supervisory computers in the respective manufacture lines, data input operation can be time- and labor-consuming, as the number of film cartridge types increases, or as the installation number of production apparatuses increases for a larger scale of mass-production. Moreover, when to change the production conditions or the inspection conditions, that is often necessary if any parts are disqualified in an inspection step, manual revising of the setup data in the line supervisory computers is also time- and labor-consuming, and can cause setup errors.
In addition, since IX 240 type photo film cartridges after development are expected to be returned to the photographer with the developed filmstrip rewound into the same cartridge shell as before, each cartridge shell is provided with the same ID number as the filmstrip contained therein. Accordingly, it is necessary to correlate the ID numbers of the filmstrips with those of the cartridge shells precisely one by one during the manufacture. To make this correlation on the conventional paper-based system is extremely time- and labor-consuming, and lacks reliability. A single computer supervising the entire manufacture lines involves disadvantages like longer data processing time and slower response with the increasing number of manufacture lines or manufacture steps or parts of the article.